Tag: Pregnancy

So, I know I’m only 7 months pregnant and maybe I shouldn’t be recommending things for pregnancy but, I have a load of experience with swollen feet. I have this disease called Lymphodemia where the lymph system doesn’t work quite right in my body. Basically it shows primarily in my left foot and it shows by swelling. Lots of it. Certain friends in high school named it (and me by proxy) Godzilla because of how big it would get. In summation, I have a lot (8 years or so) of experience with swollen feet.

I got used to accommodating my foot. I buy larger shoe sizes for boots and during the summer I mostly stick to my flip flops. The problem lay when it was too hot for boots but flip flops were not acceptable. During those times I would just suck it up and stuff my foot into ballet flats that cut into my skin (if I bought them bigger they just fell off).

Anyways, fast forward to last year during my internship. I interned at a child development center and one of the requirements was closed toed flat shoes. I wore tennis shoes often and ballet flats when I wasn’t in the classrooms. However, one lovely day I was playing with Wheatley in a field in front of our apartment and fell into a divot and sprained my ankle. Very badly. When I say badly, I mean my ankle swelled to the size of a softball (no exaggeration) and almost down to my heel. I wish I had a picture but, it was really gross looking. None of my flats had enough support to wear with my ankle the way it was and my tennis shoes cut into my swollen ankle rather painfully.

So what do I recommend for extremely swollen feet?

Shoes made out of elastic.

I didn’t even know elastic shoes existed but, we took the trek down to the BX (Base Exchange for you non-military brats) and looked at the shoes with the budget of “I’m in constant pain, fix it.” Luckily, we actually found shoes, the Sugarfoot Twisted, for a great price: $14.99 (the website has them for $16.98) .

They fit around my softball-sized ankle and have really great support in them. Unfortunately, they do not sell them anymore (probably because they aren’t the cutest on the market) but, I found these from Amazon that look pretty similar and even cuter.

I wear them whenever it is warm enough to not be in boots. They swell with my bloated pregnancy/lymphodemic feet and are so cozy!

What did you do to help make your pregnancy more comfortable? What products to do swear by?